Sunday, October 28, 2012

Surprise!

When Cliff and I got married, he loved hunting. He had a Belgian-made Browning shotgun he was quite proud of. After we bought our twenty acres south of Oak Grove, his interests changed, and he cared more about tractors and farm-type stuff. Also, we really didn't have the funds it took to keep him in ammo. Shotgun shells are expensive, so Cliff sold his Browning. He always told me he didn't regret selling it, but today I have reason to think he has been lying to me all these years. The oldest grandson, who haunts gun shows constantly, had been asking Cliff a lot of questions about his Browning over the past few months: What kind was it, what color was the wood... that sort of thing. Today he came in our house holding a gun almost identical to the one Cliff sold all those years ago. Check out the looks on their faces.

I'm not sure who is the happiest. Cliff's look shows total unbelief. Arick's smile says, "I made my grandpa happy!!!"We don't do gifts around here. So this one was a huge surprise.

I remember this design on Cliff's old Browning. This particular gun was made in 1952. Of course they had to try the shotgun out, even though the sun was almost ready to set.

Even Heather tried her hand at it. I did not, thankyouverymuch. What a great thing for Arick to do for his grandpa. He has been looking around for months to find one as close to Cliff's original Browning as possible, and he did great. We have no idea how much he paid for this gift, but we know it wasn't cheap.